Guy Reams (00:01.635)
All right, well, we're excited today to have Trevor Ladate from EcoDrive, who's the founder of EcoDrive. Welcome, Trevor. And we have Benton Moore, an investor with New Fund. So thank you for joining us, Benton.
Trevor (00:08.171)
Amen.
Trevor (00:12.544)
Thank you for having me, guy. I'm excited as well.
Benton Moore (00:20.344)
Thanks, Guy. I'm thrilled to be here. Big fan of the show.
Guy Reams (00:23.845)
Now, Benton, I think you have some involvement with the university here in San Diego. Is that correct? Did I get that right on your LinkedIn?
Benton Moore (00:30.902)
Yeah, you're right three times. I'm with University of San Diego, San Diego State and UCSD. So we can dive into that. But yeah, I'm really lucky to be in the most collaborative university town for startups nowadays. So I do a lot with early stage companies at all three places.
Guy Reams (00:52.099)
Yeah, one of the themes that's come out on the podcast quite frequently is how often early stage founders go to universities or go to kind of incubator things or go to things like tech stars, or they find a university who has an entrepreneurial type program. And that's how they get started in their initial founding journey. So that's been a theme that's come up quite often on this podcast.
Benton Moore (01:18.09)
Yeah, yeah, it comes up a lot because it's the best way to really meet everyone in the ecosystem. And I Trevor through Incubators and Accelerators and the Sandy or Angel Conference. And then we funded EcoDrive, of course, through a new fund. So it's quite a journey and I'm glad we're able to tell the story today. But we can dive into what I do at USD at the break.
We can talk about Techstars at San Diego State and we can talk about the I-Core program at UCSD. But I'd love to talk about EcoDrive.
Guy Reams (01:46.68)
You
Guy Reams (01:52.185)
Yeah, Yeah, we're going to do that. But what the reason I bring it up is that
Trevor (01:54.539)
What?
Guy Reams (01:59.713)
A lot of people that are trying to start companies or at least have an idea are unaware of what's available to them in their local community. So it's a good idea to emphasize and we can talk about it as we discussed today, but it's a good idea to emphasize that those things are available to people because many don't know this, right? You'd be surprised how many people think about raising money and they think they got to go talk to some big VC group to get
money and they don't understand what's right there in their own community or even at the local university or whatnot. So I think it's an important point.
Benton Moore (02:38.41)
It's vital to San Diego. And my journey is, you know, one of a founder before becoming an investor. I was a clean tech founder, exited to private equity, became a sustainability investor and joined the angel conference and new fund. And then since then, I've been really lucky to work with great startups as a lean startup instructor, as an advisor, as a mentor, as a coach, as a therapist, you know.
Guy Reams (02:40.421)
.
Guy Reams (03:07.816)
Hahaha
Benton Moore (03:08.046)
Anyway, can and you're right. We have a really great supportive ecosystem in San Diego. Unlike some of the other well-known startup hubs, we're more collaborative than competitive and it's a great place to start a business. And when I was starting my company, a lot of this didn't exist. So it's pretty awesome what we've built in San Diego and companies like EcoDrive can thrive.
Guy Reams (03:37.977)
All right, Trevor, so.
Trevor (03:37.994)
Benson, weren't talking about me when you said that, were you?
Benton Moore (03:42.094)
No, no, not the therapy bit.
Trevor (03:46.22)
Thank
Guy Reams (03:46.756)
Well.
Well, I actually, think that there is some truth to the fact that every person who founds a company has a slight amount or maybe a lot amount of insanity to want to do that. There is a risk taking kind of culture. I've talked to a lot of people from overseas that have started companies in the United States. That's been another thing that's come up. And there is definitely an entrepreneur spirit in the United States that
Trevor (03:58.026)
I'm
Benton Moore (03:59.821)
Yes.
Guy Reams (04:17.507)
does not exist outside of the United States as much. It's starting to, but seriously, there is a risk-taking willingness to jump in and start companies here.
Benton Moore (04:31.02)
Yeah, there's definitely the type T mentality, thrill seeker.
Guy Reams (04:34.725)
So Trevor, speaking of insanity, let's talk about you a little bit. So what were you doing before you got the idea to start EcoDrive?
Trevor (04:38.475)
Yeah.
Trevor (04:46.892)
So I was working in digital marketing at a boutique agency based out of LA where we were working with social good brands and e-commerce. So these are brands that have a purpose when you purchase from them. Everyone always relates to the Tom shoes model, right? You buy a shoe, you give a shoe. So we were working with a lot of those types of companies to leverage the impact they were making to really scale them across e-commerce.
Guy Reams (04:57.445)
Mm-hmm.
Trevor (05:16.1)
And one of those companies was called Tin Tree and they planted tin trees for every product that they sold. And that kind of exposed us to tree planting, the nonprofits that they were working with and the benefits that those trees had on the environment. And that was kind of the initial origin of EcoDrive and its initial forms of planting a tree for online orders.
Guy Reams (05:39.269)
So you, so did you go to college? Did you go to university? Where did you go?
Trevor (05:43.668)
I did go to college. I went to college. went to Cal State Fullerton, actually with my co-founder Blake and my technical co-founder Marcus. We all went to Cal State Fullerton in Orange County.
Guy Reams (05:48.353)
Okay.
Guy Reams (05:56.453)
I'm also from Cal State, yeah, I had no money to go to college, so I had to deal with what I had, right? So that's awesome, but I get this general idea that...
Trevor (05:58.932)
Nice.
Trevor (06:02.858)
Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
Guy Reams (06:15.351)
A lot of people as they grow up and go into college and university, they get this idea that if they get involved in business, they would like to not only get compensation for their work, but they would like to be doing something for society or improving things around them as best they can. Is that the ethos that you felt like you had before you started Ecodrive or did that happen because of Ecodrive?
Trevor (06:39.154)
Yeah, I think for me, was always so like Blake and I actually started another company before eco drive called side skirt ads. Right. And so I was always really passionate about passionate about starting a business with that business. I realized that I wasn't passionate about the actual company itself. And that's a huge problem. Right. You have to believe in what you're selling and building. And so I think it's a combination. Right. I
Guy Reams (06:58.015)
haha
Trevor (07:05.524)
I've always had this business mind. look at everything and what the opportunity could be in it. And I still, have a million notes on my phone right now of other business ideas and everything. I don't know if my investors want to hear that or not, but I'm not, I'm not starting anything else, but that's just how my mind's always worked. And so I've always had that passion for it and combining it with actually doing good for the world. Of course, you know, you always look for something like that. I didn't know it was going to happen. It just naturally did.
Guy Reams (07:25.049)
Hmm.
Trevor (07:34.764)
And it's super fulfilling to be in this spot where, you know, with us, yes, we're generating revenue and all of that, but we're also planting trees or pulling plastic from the ocean and contributing to planet health, right? And so it's really rewarding in that regard.
Guy Reams (07:52.613)
I Trevor don't don't feel bad. I'm pretty sure that Benton and I know I do have a have a list of potential company ideas that that is ever grow that is ever growing. We all share that same thing in common, right?
Trevor (08:01.196)
Perfect.
Benton Moore (08:04.13)
Yeah, we.
Trevor (08:06.473)
Yep.
Benton Moore (08:08.162)
We all wake up with a dozen great startup ideas and then have two dozen after a shower. So it's turning.
Guy Reams (08:11.373)
Yes.
Trevor (08:13.58)
Thank
Guy Reams (08:14.529)
And you have to fight the urge to start something every day, right?
Benton Moore (08:18.978)
Yeah, it's taking that idea and figuring out if there's a market for it is where the grind starts.
Guy Reams (08:21.861)
you
Trevor (08:24.81)
Yeah, that's that insanity we talked about a little bit.
Guy Reams (08:25.209)
So,
Benton Moore (08:28.182)
Yeah, I like to call it tenacity, but yeah, insanity is probably a good percentage.
Trevor (08:31.126)
Yeah.
Guy Reams (08:34.669)
So Trevor, let's talk a little bit about Origin. So what inspired you to create EcoDrive? Was there a personal story or a moment that sparked the idea? Can you take us through that?
Trevor (08:46.058)
Yeah, so it was actually out of that agency I mentioned earlier, right? Where we're working with all of these different brands, seeing that, business and doing good for the world doesn't have to be separate. Your customers want to shop from brands that are making an impact in one way or the other, right? And this is across a lot of different impact types. So we worked with the Tintree company where it was environmental impact. We worked with a company called Love Your Melon.
which donated to pediatric cancer for every beanie that they sold. We don't, all of the above, right? And the common theme was if you market your impact that you're creating in the world, your customers will buy more from you and you can really leverage that to build this relationship. And I think a lot of brands at that point, you know, it was a bad look to really message out the good that you're doing for the world or they thought it was. But what we saw firsthand was
It's not your customers want to see that. It's a win for your customer. It's a win for your business and it's a win for the impact that you're actually creating and those receiving that impact. And so that was like the first inspiration. were like, wow, business for good is really a thing. We saw firsthand, we got really good at marketing it and, you know, key messaging strategies at those customer touch points to help businesses drive ROI on their impact.
But then on the flip side, we also saw when we were donating hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to these nonprofits, there was a real lack in transparency. As we continue to scale, we are getting donation receipts and the same generic photos that we got, you know, the year before. And we were like, this is a problem. You know, we're funding half of this nonprofit right now. We can't see any of the transparency and insights and it's not.
a knock on those nonprofits because they're doing great work. There's just no real technology for them to operate off of. And so those were the two gaps that we kind of set out to bridge at EcoDrive. And we started in just tree planting because that's what we knew with our client Tintree. And it's since then grown from there.
Guy Reams (10:58.693)
So I want you to get into exactly how EcoDrive accomplishes that. But just a minute. It seems like there's the people that are passionate about environmental concerns.
but it's quite another thing to actually create a business that has an impact. I think those are two, you can be passionate about it and I can recycle my plastic or whatever, but then there's creating a company or creating a nonprofit and actually putting that to action. Benton, seems like that's a topic area that's, are you, have you always been passionate about that or is that a recent development or how did you come to that kind of idea?
Benton Moore (11:37.006)
Yeah, I think I've always been passionate about the environment and sustainability. But like Trevor, trying to figure out a way to make it a business and really focus on ROI for customers. you know, I love EncoDrive because I think it's kind of the antidote to greenwashing. And that's been a big problem if you look at Unilever and some other famous case studies. But we have reached a point and I live through
CleanTech, GreenTech 1.0 with some collapsed solar deals. And I think in this, know, CleanTech 3.0 or whatever we're in climate tech and it probably needs a new name now, resilient tech or infrastructure tech, who knows? But I think now, you know, we have some great companies we've invested in that are just great companies. They just happen to be in the sustainability space and companies that we've invested in.
at New Fund and St. Angel Conference like AquaCycle and Algenesis that are doing great things. I think most people in the world in America are concerned about environment and really want to do the right thing, but they don't know how. And what I love about EcoDrive, it's not overly simple. It's a complicated fix for the environment, but it's...
explainable to anyone and for the customers, it's almost like a B2B SaaS model because it creates an ROI for the customers while taking care of almost in the background, this environmental concern that a lot of people have lurking but don't know how to act upon.
Guy Reams (13:19.023)
You mentioned a topic that's relevant, but it's a phrase that people are probably not used to, which is greenwashing. Can you just, can you explain that?
Benton Moore (13:27.818)
Do you ever want to take this one? Because you probably have a lot of last week experience talking to customers.
Trevor (13:29.58)
Thank
Guy Reams (13:29.905)
Haha
Trevor (13:34.238)
Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. The term is actually changing a little bit year over year as we've seen shifts in sustainability. There's a lot that can fall under greenwashing. There's even green hushing that goes under it. Typically what it's referring to as a business overstating what they're actually doing for the environment, right? It's it even in our case, it could be a company that plants a tree for every product that they sell and now they claim to be sustainable.
Guy Reams (13:48.367)
You
Trevor (14:03.688)
on that product, but that product is made of virgin plastic, which is first plastic of its kind, not recycled, and it's actually not sustainable. That's a prime example of what greenwashing could be. And so there's a million other different ways that you could do greenwashing, but it's typically just overstating your true sustainability. And so...
At EcoDriable, we always advise companies on is just transparency. Just be transparent where you're at, right? It's okay if you don't have everything figured out. Just don't overstate anything. We try and power that whole relationship so that they don't have to.
Guy Reams (14:44.675)
Yeah, one of my favorite greenwashing things is the when you go to the hotel and they they they now no longer provide service because they're claiming that it helps the environment. But you really wonder if that's their motivation or they just simply trying to reduce costs. I mean, seriously, does it actually help? mean, I don't know.
Trevor (14:59.532)
Yeah, that's funny. That's funny. Actually, I don't know if I'm allowed. I don't know if I should speak. Yeah, yeah. So it is right. And again, the hotel industry, your exact use case is actually a big customer of ours and a big segment because again, we're trying to tie this to ROI channels. And you're absolutely right, right? It is a more sustainable option because you're not
Benton Moore (15:02.798)
Hopefully it's a multi-benefit approach.
Guy Reams (15:10.243)
Yeah
Guy Reams (15:18.905)
Yes.
Trevor (15:28.84)
using the energy and water usage to replenish the towels. You're not wasting the supplies by replenishing those. And those hotels are saving a lot of money. It's on average $20 per room per night and not turning over your room, right? In terms of labor, those same supplies and that energy consumption. And so if the hotel can get you to opt out of housekeeping, that's actually a huge savings for them, but it also is the more sustainable option too. And so,
Guy Reams (15:44.281)
Mm-hmm.
Trevor (15:58.038)
They're leveraging that marketing for sure, but there's that end goal for them. But we partner with lot of hotels who trying to incentivize their customer to actually opt out of that housekeeping by planting trees or pulling plastic from the ocean to get them to do so.
Guy Reams (16:14.703)
So how do you accomplish that? Because there's obviously a perception that, there's a growing perception that people are just doing this to save money and they really have no environmental impact at all. They're just using it as way to brand themselves. So how do you solve that problem?
Trevor (16:32.94)
Yeah, I mean, look, at the end of the day, if they weren't saving money, they wouldn't be doing it. Right. And that's kind of what you go drive. Thanks. We always say in order for sustainability to be sustainable, it has to impact your bottom line or your top line of a company or else it's not going to be right. We have these huge promises in 2022 of net zero with no real goals on getting there. And then you saw the economy kind of take a downturn.
Guy Reams (16:38.501)
Exactly.
Guy Reams (16:49.957)
Mm-hmm.
Trevor (17:01.108)
With that, those goals kind of went away. You haven't heard too much about those goals like you did back then. you know, we can talk about interest rate environments. We can talk about all the different things that could have led to that. But at the end of the day, sustainability at most companies is still looked at as a cost burden. And what EcoDrive tries to do is flip that script on those exact examples. Where can we implement sustainability to hit those net zero goals?
Guy Reams (17:06.757)
Yes.
Trevor (17:27.692)
or your macro sustainability goals, but it's actually gonna save you money in order to do so. So instead of pay hotel ABC, instead of planting the million trees like you claim you're going to do in 2025, why don't we tie this to a customer action that's actually gonna save you the money? And then you can bake that in. And now it's not just a one-time commitment that seems like a cost burden for you. It's actually something that's boosting engagement, saving you money, driving loyalty with your customer.
and something you're going to continue to do for years to come. And so now Hotel A, B, and C can actually continue to plant millions and millions of trees, helping benefit the planet, right? And so that goes to the planet profit people conversation and the wins all around. And that's really what we try and do. We try and find that across any industry we're working in, try and find that ROI touch point, how, whether it's increasing conversions, saving money through opt-outs.
driving repeat purchases through the tracking emails that go out. That's what EcoDrive's here to do, is tie ROI to the impact that you're creating.
Guy Reams (18:36.325)
Do you have an example of, oops. Do you have an example where maybe you can share an example of a client that's benefited significantly from using EcoDrive?
Trevor (18:49.066)
Yeah, let me actually I have a, can't, you can't see it right now, but let me grab this. So this is the door hanger that I'm sorry for only speaking about hotels, but you just brought up that example. So I have to, but got it.
Guy Reams (19:02.423)
I brought it up on purpose because I remember you shared that example with me.
Benton Moore (19:05.549)
Brilliant segue.
Trevor (19:07.318)
So can you see this example? This is a door hanger that Windsor Suites out of Philadelphia uses. And it says plant the tree when you opt out of daily housekeeping powered by EcoDrive. So since using this and asking customers at their front desk, if they want to opt out of housekeeping, it's a more sustainable option and we're going to plant trees on your behalf if you do so. They've seen 130 % increase in daily opt-outs. So that's saved them on average.
Guy Reams (19:11.161)
Yes.
Guy Reams (19:14.978)
Okay.
Trevor (19:37.292)
15,000 plus a month, right? Which results in hundreds of thousands of annual savings for this hotel. And they're planting, I think it's like 25,000 trees every quarter or something crazy, right? And so that's a prime example that you kind of laid out for me. We have a million across all different industries, a lot in e-commerce as well, increasing conversions from cart to checkout by a banner that says we plant a tree for every order.
increasing AOV by similar to a free shipping model, free shipping above 50. We'll pull five pounds of plastic from the ocean for every order above 100. And then the customer checks out because of that. And we've seen increases in conversions there. And then our bread and butter is actually repeat purchases that come or even repeat stays or leaving reviews from our actual tracking emails. So everything that EcoDrive does
is verified on the ground. And this goes back to the transparency issue I addressed earlier, but whether it's a tree, a pound of plastic, we get timestamps, geo coordinates and photo evidence of every single tree planted. And we actually communicate that back to your customer from your business. And in that it's a really value add way to reengage your customer 30 days later, 60 days later, six months later around the impact you created with them.
and then selling to them again at the bottom. Hey, come back and plant another tree with us. see five customers that engage with those emails are five times more likely to repeat purchase, have a 300 % higher lifetime value than those that don't. So there's a ton of case studies, but that's really our core focus is that transparency angle and tying ROI to that.
Guy Reams (21:09.519)
Hahaha.
Guy Reams (21:26.927)
So it's not just saving money, it's also improving customer retention or getting customers to come back. It's more than just saving money.
Trevor (21:34.282)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And how we always try and relate it to, and I give this example, I gave it throughout my new fun pitches and my S stack pitches last year, but we always tie it to if you're a, if you're anybody, you've gone to the grocery store and at checkout, they've asked you to donate to something at checkout, right? If you've done it, then you've probably never received any evidence after the fact, right?
Guy Reams (22:03.769)
No. Yeah.
Trevor (22:04.116)
And if you're like most people, you probably don't do it because you don't trust it because of that experience. Well, if it's hard by eco-drive, you're going to receive something after, right? And when you receive something after, you're going to be like, wow, that's actually really cool. And it's going to have Whole Foods logo on top of it. And you're going to associate that with your Whole Foods shopping experience. And that's what we're seeing out of that right now with our businesses.
Guy Reams (22:09.559)
Exactly.
you
Guy Reams (22:26.757)
Hmm.
So I'm just an example yesterday, CVS I think launched a LA fire victims thing. So when you swipe your card or whatever, you put your number in, you put your number in and then it asks you if you wanna donate a dollar or whatever to the LA fire victims.
So you're saying that using eco drive potentially CVS could then follow up with those customers and let them know the impact they had and provide them some transparency to what actually where the money was actually sent. Maybe the family had impacted or something like that.
Trevor (23:04.83)
Exactly, exactly. So you as the customer would receive an email from CVS. It's powered by eco drive, but it's all from CVS is domain and everything set up through our system with your ID. So we call these impact IDs. So it would have more information on that wildfire project and it would have your exact ID for shopping with them. You would click out to register your ID. Once you registered it, you would get
your exact ID number that you can track over the entire life cycle of that impact, right? And set up a profile. you, Guy Reams has your own profile with your photo. You can set up a bio. You can share it to your social and you can show the businesses that you've supported and the impact types that you've created. And we call it the Domino's Pizza Tracker of impact. You can see the status in every impact you made across our entire brand ecosystem. And you can easily shop again, directly from CVS.
Guy Reams (23:55.193)
Hahaha.
Trevor (24:02.708)
right on your profile.
Guy Reams (24:04.879)
So it's not just for the company's benefit, it's also for the person that participates in the donations perspective.
Trevor (24:12.031)
Exactly. Yep.
Guy Reams (24:15.705)
That's interesting. So you're creating an ecosystem. Now, how do you involve? So obviously there's vendors involved that actually do the planting of trees or do the trash cleanup. How do you create that connection between these consumers, your companies and the vendors that do that type of work?
Trevor (24:33.462)
Yeah, so that's all. We're kind of this software piece in the middle of it all, right? And so just like we go out and get businesses and corporations to sponsor these projects, we go out and we select projects, we heavily vet them on the ground. We're partnering with nonprofits and then overlaying that technology that can also get us the timestamps, geo coordinates, photo evidence that we need to pass that through.
Not all nonprofits can provide that for you or are willing to adopt that technology just because it disrupts operations. But our goal is to be able to fuel even more donations that makes it more attractive for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes can essentially use that technology to give us that verification.
Guy Reams (25:06.095)
Mm-hmm.
Guy Reams (25:19.257)
Do you oftentimes have like, like you brought up hotels, let's say a hotel chain. Do you oftentimes have customers come to you where they would like to do this, but don't have a vendor that they would use or don't have a nonprofit they would and they're looking for you for help to do that?
Trevor (25:32.726)
So right now they pretty much come to us and just use, we call it our project marketplace. They just use whatever is in our project marketplace. The more common thing that we see is, and where you were doing this right now, like a business that has a lot of operations in Thailand and we don't have current tree planting projects in Thailand. And so now it's like, okay, let's go figure out if we can.
Guy Reams (25:38.277)
Okay.
I see.
Trevor (25:59.082)
that a nonprofit, which typically takes a while and then set up the verification technology. And so we're actually in that process and that's using customer demand is how we typically enter new markets and get new locations on board into our project marketplace.
Guy Reams (26:16.197)
That makes sense. All right, let's get back to when you first started. you and your co-founders at Cal State Fullerton decided to do this idea. So obviously the idea was great, but you obviously needed money to start the company. So what was the thought process or what was your initial attempt at raising funds for the company? Did you use your own money, family, friends? I mean, how did you get started?
Trevor (26:41.472)
Yeah, so.
Trevor (26:45.484)
So out of that agency, we kind of launched EcoDrive. Blake and I, we left the agency, it was January of 2022, and initially self-funded it. So our first platform, we outsourced the build of it, and we funded all of that personally. And then we brought on Marcus, who is our CTO and co-founder now as well, who went to Cal State Fullerton with us.
to build out more of our technology side. And the goal in the beginning was like, let's bootstrap this thing. And then we realized quickly that building out a tech platform is really hard to bootstrap on your own and sell fund. And so we ended up doing an accelerator program called Launch in November of 2022 as our first initial funding. And that's actually where Benton first discovered EcoDrive.
was in one of those launch pitches. So we raised a little bit.
Guy Reams (27:46.405)
How did you find out about launch?
Trevor (27:51.754)
How did I find out about launch? Okay. Yeah.
Guy Reams (27:53.731)
Yeah, yeah, how did you how did you even know to go to launch that that's what I'm
Trevor (27:57.984)
Yeah, so it was, if you're familiar, it's Jason Calacanis's accelerator program. And we were big fans of the All In podcast and read his book a few years back and just kind of knew of him from the space. And so reached out there and they ended up interviewing us. We went through like a three month process with them and then ended up getting brought into their cohort.
Guy Reams (28:11.621)
You
Guy Reams (28:25.517)
And why was launch good for you? What was beneficial about it to you?
Trevor (28:31.084)
Yeah, I think it was the first real exposure we had to raising capital, right? Like we had never raised any capital prior to that. And while we were really focused on the business side, I at least at the time did not realize raising capital is a full-time job. And it's a big part of what you have to do running a company in the tech space. And that was our first kind of rude awakening to like, wow, this is a full thing. This is actually.
Guy Reams (28:35.437)
I see, yeah.
Guy Reams (28:52.838)
Mm-hmm.
Trevor (28:59.584)
very serious and it's a long program and it's tough. And so that's where we first initially refined our pitch over and over again. Their team was super helpful. They gave us a lot of exposure into the space. We got in front of some of the largest VC funds in the world and whether or not they ended up investing, it was just great to get their feedback and get in front of them and get those reps in.
I really think that's why we were so successful later on raising our seed round, getting different VCs involved and winning S-DAC. S-DAC is all about how well you can pitch up there for the most part until you get to the final rounds and in the story that you can tell. I think launch really helped us kind of craft that narrative, what investors are really looking for that you just don't have exposure to as a first time founder who's never fundraised before.
Guy Reams (29:39.439)
Yes.
Guy Reams (29:53.957)
And go ahead, Yeah, go ahead.
Benton Moore (29:54.316)
Yeah, that's, can I chime in here? Yeah. I, I met Blake, Trevor's co-founder, through the launch demo day. I had done some deals with Jason Calacanis and was looking at really early stage companies and he could drive was really early. was, it was still mostly an idea at the time, but they had a great pitch. They put it together. They knew how to craft a story. And then about a year later when they joined St. Eager angel conference.
They were miles ahead of other companies that hadn't started refining their story. And they were really getting to the point of having some traction where they could tell a story about customers and they'd done customer discovery and they knew exactly what they were building. So it made our jobs as investors much easier for all the work they did. And the San Diego Angel Conference is almost like a mini accelerator because it's a three month process. Deep dive, you get to know
the founders, the founders get to have dinner with 60 different investors week in and week out. So it's a really good first touch for early stage companies meeting early stage investors. And know, guys, you don't invest at the first meeting. It's usually like seven or 10 touches. And that can be years in the making. And in this case, it was about a year and a half, I think, before when I met
Blake through launch, then they won San Diego Angel Conference and then New Fund invested after what we call the SDAQ bump. If you win SDAQ, then you automatically go to New Fund and have a good shot there.
Guy Reams (31:36.357)
Benton, there's an area here I'd like to just dig into, because I think those of us who have been in the angel investment community understand this innately and it just seems simple to us.
But a lot of newbies, new founders don't understand the relationship between an organization like Launch and early stage investors like you. Can you explain that relationship? Like explain the relationship you had with Launch and why you would even be involved.
Benton Moore (32:07.0)
Well, we're early stage investors, right? And sometimes that is entirely the angels domain, meaning you're spending your own money, you're making your own investments, or it can be part of a fund like New Fund, or sometimes venture capital at a seed stage can spend other people's money in that space. And Launch is an accelerator that feeds into Jason Calacanis' stacked empire now that goes to his syndicate, which I'm a member of.
Guy Reams (32:32.548)
You
Benton Moore (32:37.226)
which is not a crime family, but an investment crew. And, you know, I was invited to look at early stage companies coming out of the accelerator that might be ready for the next stage, which is the syndicate or the launch fund. and it's really important to understand if you're a new investor, you're going to see thousands and thousands of pitches and thousands of companies. And the network of the angel investor is so
so entrenched and important. We all know what's going on. So whether you're in Seattle or Boston or San Diego, we all share the same deal Intel. And once you have one network behind you, like eco drive, you had launched behind them and then you had San Diego angel conference. then it made our, made our job at, at new fund much easier. And hopefully it made the process much easier for econ drive. We were able to close a bigger round.
in a shorter amount of time.
Guy Reams (33:36.485)
So Benton, there feels like there's a difference between ideas or what us investors would call pre-revenue.
meaning they haven't generated any money yet. And those that are actually starting to get success. And it feels like there's a journey that you go through. You start with organizations like Launch, and then you get to the next phase, then you get into an early angel group like New Fund. And it seems like you're already generating revenue by the time you get to that stage. Would you agree with that? Or do you see any thing that you would point out there?
Benton Moore (34:14.688)
Yeah, there's lots of pick apart there. The buzzword VC for the last probably two years has been traction. And that always means to those that look under that is usually revenues, customer usage, customer growth, revenues, usage and growth. And until you have that, you're not really ready for venture capital. If you're on that path, then you might be ready for angel capital and taking
Guy Reams (34:22.009)
Yes.
Benton Moore (34:43.552)
a great idea and turning it into a great company is a long journey sometimes. At University of San Diego at the Brink, which is our accelerator for small business, I run a program called Lean Essentials Sprint. And it's an eight week, literally, sprint like software, but for an idea stage company that wants to do customer discovery, work on their pitch, and then present to investors what they think is a real business model.
And along that eight week path, quite often founders will find this is really hard. And what I'm building in my garage or imaginary AI garage, nobody wants, nobody wants it. No matter what I charge for it, there's no place in the market for it. they don't quit their job at Qualcomm or Illumina. And I think of those as success stories because probably saved a career. And they still go back and have other ideas.
So the idea is to vet these ideas very quickly in the marketplace with customer discovery, get in front of investors who see early stage companies all the time and get real actionable feedback. So that's how you take an idea and turn it into a company. And it's similar to what EcoDrive did before I met them with the launch accelerator.
Guy Reams (36:05.423)
So Trevor, feels like you definitely hit right at this idea. So there's the idea. So I think a lot of founders, initial people who've never done this before, have this thought in their head that they've got a great idea. And they're gonna bring that great idea to a venture capital firm and they're just gonna be excited and put a bunch of money into it.
But that is a complete myth. I think we now understand that. So Trevor, you clearly had a great idea. What was the initial reaction that you got from people when you first started talking about your pitch to launch and then to subsequent investors? What was the initial reaction? Was it what you thought it would be? Or was there resistance that you had to overcome?
Trevor (36:46.804)
Yeah, I it's interesting. I've probably talked to 150 plus investors and gotten turned down a hundred and, you know, 45 times. What's the math on that? Right. And so like, there's no one size fits all. You never know what that investor you're talking to is looking for. One investor is going to tell you something different than the next. Right. And so
Guy Reams (37:01.584)
Hahaha
Trevor (37:15.688)
It's just a reps thing. It's a numbers game. It's finding the right people for you. And I'm stoked to have the right people on our team, people that believe in the mission, believe in what we're building. And it took a long time. You'll feel defeated in the beginning, time and time again. But it's really just a part of the process. And every founder I've talked to that has gone through what the pre-seed and seed round.
Guy Reams (37:33.603)
Mm-hmm.
Trevor (37:41.332)
Unless they have, unless I was eco drive.ai, my experience might've been a little bit different, but they've, they've gone through the same thing, hundreds of pitches, you know, and then what typically happens is as you go, it seems to get a little easier. Now I think economy and everything like that is a different story. And we'll see as we go off for our series a probably in 2026, how our experiences, but you get those reps in the beginning, you build those relationships and
It seems to be a smoother process moving forward with us in the beginning. We actually weren't really looking for that initial funding. It just kind of fell into our lap with launch and we got accepted there and then that was pretty much good to raise our pre seed round and then we went out for our seed round and that's when we got punched in the face over and over again until we kept refining our pitch, our business.
locking in, getting our numbers right. And you know, we made it through, we survived and we're growing fast. And so that's just the story. Like, I don't know what advice I would give to founders outside of take everything with a grain of salt, because back to one investor is going to tell you completely, a completely different thing than the next, depending on what they're looking for and just kind of add all those up and refine your business as needed or keep going.
on your business and wait till you find that perfect investor for you.
Guy Reams (39:12.453)
There's an interesting.
Benton Moore (39:12.824)
Survive in advance, right? It's smart. So that is always good advice.
Trevor (39:13.996)
Yeah.
Guy Reams (39:18.821)
Yeah, I think there's an interesting dynamic here. Not all investor advice is good advice, because they're just people. And they're not automatically awesome business people just because they call themselves an investor. So let's just be clear about that. But then there is also a lot of good advice. And you can get a lot of that advice for free.
It feels Benton like there is a little bit more of a motivation for people like you to be involved in these early stages than just money. So.
Benton Moore (39:52.888)
absolutely. think every angel investor has a passion for helping other founders if they've been, obviously a founder and been through it and exited, or if they're in a different industry and they want to help, whether it's clean tech or sustainability or life sciences and disease eradication, everyone has a why. And you're right. And there's a lot of bad advice out there. Tech stars, call it founder whiplash because you'll meet with 50
50 investors in one day and you're getting all this different information, but it's good. It's good training. It's good reps like Trevor says to hear all of this stuff. And yeah, I think, I think you have to be, very, very passionate if you're going to be what we call an angel investor, an investor in, in high risk, early stage companies that we know two thirds of them are not going to return an investment. So you're looking for the home runs. You're looking for people that you're going to have a 10 year relationship with.
So that's why it takes so long to make an investment is because you have to get to know the people. And I think most people do care about what they put their money into, especially when it's your money. It's not a pension fund. It's not private equity you're talking about. You can just buy the S &P 500 and go sailing, or you can roll up your sleeves and really help a company that you believe in with founders you believe in. And I think that's what drives most angels.
Guy Reams (41:21.679)
So Trevor, what was the first punch in the face? Do you remember the first real punch in the face after your seed round and you went out to get real money? What was that first punch in the face like for you?
Trevor (41:33.804)
I don't know if there was an exact one. I think the ones that hurt the most were the ones that we got the farthest with and then didn't end up investing. Those were definitely the ones that I think, you know, that stings because as someone that gets very optimistic and excited about things, it's really easy to be like, like you mentioned earlier, these VCs are going to love it. They're showing that they're loving it. We got this far and then
Guy Reams (41:44.899)
Mm-hmm.
Trevor (42:03.722)
No deal, right? Because at the seed stage, we're talking about probably riding a 500K to a million dollar check, which is, you know, now I know I can actually live for the next 12 to 18 months and get a salary and build this business and it's not dying. And so the dream is that much closer when you're having those conversations and you're getting farther and farther.
those were the ones that hurt the most, especially when they were investors that we really wanted to get. So there was a few of those and that kind of happened for one reason or another, whether we just weren't a fit at the end of the day or whatever, but that definitely hurt the most. Now I do want to say too, like back to my initial point of every investor is going to tell you something different, take everything with a grain of salt, because every business is different.
Right. But these investors, they mean well for the most part. maybe 98 % of my calls, I think those investors met well and they were very intelligent. They knew what they were doing. They had their expertise in a specific space. It just might not have been the exact space and the exact way that was best for EcoDrive to be built. But that's not to say that's not the best way for an AI company to be built or a direct to consumer company to be built.
Guy Reams (43:22.223)
you
Trevor (43:24.574)
And so it was just great to get that knowledge and that expertise, but take all of those things with a grain of salt, understand what's best for your business, leveraging all of that knowledge that you acquire, and then build the business the way you want it to be built and with your vision, because at the end of the day, advice is great, but no one else is in the driver's seat but you, and you're gonna be the one that sacrifices everything for the next five years to get it done, right?
Guy Reams (43:51.459)
You know, had a person ask me about CEO salary. They're how come this CEO of this large public company makes so much money? And I'm like, I don't think you understand how many relationships that person has built over the last 20 to 30 years with people that have money.
that the relationship that person has with the right investors is worth a lot of money to the company that hired them. I don't think people realize that you become the head cheerleader of the company. Your entire job is to talk to investors all the time. That is the job.
Benton Moore (44:28.226)
Yeah, CEO is generally a misnomer. It's really Chief Investment Officer. We all know. And there's no better job, but there's no more challenging or rewarding job.
Trevor (44:35.947)
Yeah.
Guy Reams (44:38.243)
Well, it's starting right here. mean, Trevor's building a relationship with investors. And as the company gets bigger, the investors will probably change. And you'll build new relationships with the investors that even have more money, right? So I think this is part of the cycle that I don't think people really get their head around until you're in it, right?
Trevor (44:56.158)
Yeah, I mean that is of course if Benton and Newfound want to just fund our next round too, then they don't have to change.
Benton Moore (44:56.845)
Just glad.
Guy Reams (45:02.434)
Yeah
Benton Moore (45:02.487)
Okay.
But it made it to back around. I was worried you were going to say the punch in your face was me prepping you for the new fund diligence. But I think you did well. I do have to give a shout out to Josh Lample, who was the co-deal lead on EcoDrive for New Fund. And we don't do a lot of clean tech deals at New Fund. And I think last year's fund was about 90 % life sciences. So Trevor and Blake and
Trevor (45:13.074)
Yeah.
Guy Reams (45:26.447)
Mm-hmm.
Benton Moore (45:34.624)
EcoDrive coming through really balanced out the portfolio, but we have a lot of life sciences members. So anything outside of that realm is a challenge. credit to the team for how they presented and really focused on the finances and the ROI to customers and understanding their customer acquisition costs, their lifetime customer value, a lot of the metrics that make non-cleantech
investors understand the business behind EcoDrive.
Guy Reams (46:07.619)
Yeah, so it's interesting as you get involved with these larger investment groups, I think people need to understand that they need a champion within that group to really go forward. And it sounds like Benton, you were that champion for EcoDrive, or you and Josh.
Benton Moore (46:21.538)
Well, I one of the champions. Yeah, Josh, Josh as well. And, you know, we were very selective about what clean tech companies we want to present to the general membership because it's very skewed towards life science. And rightly so we've had some great exits and I'm happy to be part of all the important life science work we're doing, medical devices, et cetera. But it's also nice to have a balance. since sustainability is my...
my wheelhouse, I see some great companies and every now and then there's one I really want to bring in and EcoDrive is that.
Guy Reams (46:54.917)
Do you remember the moment Benton when you knew that EcoDrive was something you wanted to get behind? Do you remember the time when you made that decision?
Benton Moore (47:06.296)
Yeah, it was during, it wasn't during the launch demo day. It was still too early then, but I liked, I liked the vibe. I liked, you know, they had the founder mindset I look for. They were curious. They were tenacious, optimistic, but all very realistic. It was when SDAC, for St. David Angel Conference, when I got to spend some more time with them and see how their business had grown from an idea to an actual business model that could generate.
growth and really be scalable. And that's, that's what excited me was, you know, this is a scalable software solution that just happens to be in the sustainability space. And that's when I got my head around that this could be a business that not just clean tech people could, could understand and get behind. when Trevor rocked the rock, the finals pitch and one San Diego angel conference, we funded him and big thanks to Priscilla Luckhurst who was the fund manager.
Guy Reams (47:57.893)
You
Benton Moore (48:04.96)
And Hans Baumgartner, who was the diligence lead for SDAC, know, it all sets the stage. They won a couple hundred thousand dollars. And then, then we have a really nice momentum going into New Fund where some of, some of the San Diego Angels, you know, we call SDAC the farm league for New Fund because we activate angels there. We teach them how to look at deals and, and how to decipher pitches and.
and make their first investment sometimes, and then they graduate and join New Fund. I think we have close to 100, 100 S-DAC farm leaguers who are now big time with New Fund. it's a great, you know, great collaborative ecosystem we've built and hats off to Misty Rusk for launching the San Diego Angel Conference six years ago. We're now starting Fund 7, which is actually going to be held at San Diego State.
Guy Reams (48:44.069)
You
Benton Moore (49:01.4)
So another example of what a collaborative town it is, a University of San Diego and San Diego State working together to foster entrepreneurship and early stage investment. So yes.
Guy Reams (49:11.545)
Yeah.
Trevor (49:12.831)
Benton if I'm hearing you correctly just to go back to when you first knew it wasn't when you met my co-founder Blake But then once you finally met me is when you knew this is the company I want to invest
Benton Moore (49:23.726)
Well played Trevor. I'm not sure when you became CEO as opposed to just all being co-founders, but I think it was around that S-STAC time early last year.
Trevor (49:41.472)
Yeah.
Guy Reams (49:41.541)
What's interesting, what's interesting, Benchen mentioned some qualities that he was looking for in a founder. Trevor, think, I've heard this from everybody, so I wonder if it's true for you. What you thought you had to have as a quality in order to start this business and what you actually had to have in order to win S-TAC.
That changed in your mind. You now realized what qualities you had to have or improve upon versus what you thought you might have to have when you started. Did you see a transition there?
Trevor (50:15.35)
You know, I don't know if I saw a real transition. I think it wasn't less of my qualities. I've honestly always been kind of a, I guess, confident person in what we're building and the way I can pitch it and portray it. So I wasn't as worried about that. And I figured that would help a lot. think, you know, in my mind, what it comes down to too, is just the business that you're building and can you get that message across and
I think one thing that we struggled with in the beginning of SDAC and even in the beginning of kind of our investor pitches and everything was just simplifying what we're resonating it to the people we're pitching it to. And I think SDAC process, if you look at pitch one versus the final pitch, that continued to get more and more refined. And so it was just, you know, simplifying the message a little bit.
and really showcasing how this can become a massive company and what we're really building here. Where that didn't get across in the first initial pitches or like when we first pitched to Benton through launch. And so that was one of my fears going into it, but it wasn't necessarily my own abilities or our team's abilities. I think we have a great team building it here at EcoDrive.
Guy Reams (51:34.437)
Yeah, think a lot of people are concerned about things that really don't matter to investors that much, like what my tech stack is going to look like or all these things like that that are just like, you're way too early to be worried about that, right? The first thing you need to worry about is how am I actually going to convince people to pay me money for my service. It's pretty freaking important. It's just funny how people just.
Trevor (51:54.261)
total.
Guy Reams (51:58.051)
They're like, well, we'll get customers later. I need to worry about my tech stack first. And it's like it needs to be the opposite, right? You need to really be able to share the message and convince customers and investors to buy into the message, right?
Trevor (52:10.806)
Yeah.
Benton Moore (52:11.104)
Exactly. A lot of founders are in love with their product that they haven't yet built and you really need to fall in love with the problem first and then solve it. And I think that's what EcoDrive did. They've had some iterations and different product launches and have been very lean about, lean and fast about how they pivot. So we call it coachability when we're looking at early stage founders.
Trevor (52:34.156)
It's.
Benton Moore (52:40.494)
and having long talks with them and giving them crazy ideas and how they respond. know, some of it is red herrings and misdirects, but most of it's sincere and how they respond really matters because there's no straight lines in startups. You're tacking back and forth, even if you're trying to get A to B and how you respond to crises, even if they're self-made sometimes in entrepreneurship really matters. And those are the attributes.
being able to embrace the chaos that is startup. That's how you survive. And that's one of the things that I really liked about Trevor and Blake.
Guy Reams (53:17.465)
Yeah, it seems to be an interesting balance between being dedicated, focused, and resilient to push your idea forward despite setbacks, but yet also be curious and coachable and willing to pivot and change as you're needed.
Benton Moore (53:31.64)
Yeah, I was talking to some MBA AI students the other day and I said, you have to be curious but focused, tenacious but agile, optimistic but realistic. So those are the three attributes I encourage them to have or to foster.
Guy Reams (53:40.837)
Hahaha.
Guy Reams (53:48.665)
That's fascinating. Trevor, do feel like the value proposition for EcoDrive has adjusted significantly since the first idea till now? is it, so how is it shifted? Give us at least an example of how it shifted.
Trevor (53:56.938)
Definitely. Yeah, I mean and
Well, well, just the business has shifted in general too, right? You know, we were just in tree planting, just in online orders for e-commerce. And so now it goes far beyond just that. It's still true to its core of ROI first, you know, and then helping you to make more impact in the world. Just the different ways we get that done has grown as our technology has grown. Right. And so to your point earlier about like going out, getting the customers and that
that kind of means everything. That's what we did, but it definitely is a balancing act because you do need your tech stack and your technology to grow alongside. And so we have a great tech team here at EcoDrive and we built that up over the years using both revenues and what we've got from our investors and the pitch just keep refining to what we're seeing in the market, to customer demands and going beyond that. And so it's still true to our core, but
the way we get it done is always shifting. And so like in the beginning, it was really just increasing conversions and planting trees. And now it's making an impact across all sort of different environmental projects, as well as those actual tracking on your project, driving repeat purchases. And so it's just continuing to evolve to meet customer demands.
Guy Reams (55:27.023)
Great, well, I thank you two for being on today. Before we leave, is there any parting comments you'd like to make to, well, first off, Trevor, you've got another round coming up, it sounds like. So any final thoughts on that? And Benton, any final advice to potential founders that are looking to start their own companies?
Benton Moore (55:46.414)
Go for it, yeah, but make sure you know what you're getting into. There is a level, you know, a smidgen of insanity in there, but you have to be tenacious. And the future is unwritten, so don't give up on sustainability, even if it's not in vogue at the moment.
Guy Reams (55:48.227)
I'm
Guy Reams (56:03.269)
And Trevor, what's next for EcoDrive?
Trevor (56:06.944)
Yeah, so we are raising a little bit of a bridge around the capital this year prior to our series a investment that will probably go out for in mid 2026. So any new fund investor that's listening to this, my email is trevor at eco drive dot community. Hit me up. But yeah, so we're raising that bridge to basically amplify the success we're seeing with impact ideas, which we launched in December. And so we're getting a ton of traction there.
Guy Reams (56:22.45)
Yeah.
Trevor (56:35.03)
beating all of our goals that we set out. And so there's a lot of initial interests around that. Plus we're building out a white label model, which we didn't talk about, but it's essentially licensing our technology and providing it to nonprofits and all different impact types so that they can service their corporate partners with ROI and transparency like we do. And I believe that's going to be a huge avenue for eco drive in the future. And so that should be launching later this year with that additional capital that we bring in.
Guy Reams (57:05.733)
That's a whole other topic we could dive into is different models for, yeah, I mean, this is a topic that comes up a lot. It's how do I build a channel or do I build a channel? How do I do that? I mean, this is a complicated topic, right? It's a fun one. But you did mention a concept that I can't leave without addressing, and that is bridge round.
Trevor (57:08.244)
Yeah, you got another hour or?
Guy Reams (57:30.285)
What is that exactly? Because I hear founders use that all the time. I need a bridge round. What do you mean by that?
Trevor (57:39.966)
Yeah, that is a great question. I think these terms are on now. I don't know if I have the exact example of it, but let me, I'll give you my take and then Benton can probably give you the proper definition of it. It's basically when the series a round keeps the goalposts is getting further and further away. Series a investors. When we first set out, I talked to a lot of series a investors by mistake. But
Guy Reams (57:42.962)
Hehehehe. Hehehehe.
Benton Moore (58:07.31)
Thank
Trevor (58:07.788)
what they were first looking for was, you know, maybe it was a million or 1.5 million in revenue and X amount of growth per year with X amount of technology. That goalpost has shifted to about 2.5 to 3 million in revenue, right? And so as that shifted, the gap between seed and series A has gotten a lot longer and a lot of companies can't get that series A that technically would have qualified in 21, 22.
Right. And so now you see a lot of companies raising either an extension to their seed round or a bridge round to help get them, you know, they, they might've raised a seed round to get them 18 to 24 months to a series a, but now that series a is actually 36 to 48 months out. And so they need that bridge to continue to grow and qualify for the series a at that farther out position.
Benton Moore (59:01.122)
called inflation.
Trevor (59:02.611)
Yeah.
Benton Moore (59:04.652)
Yeah, the bridge is supposed to get you from A to V, right? It's supposed to be crossing the chasm from seed to series A, but it's a term of art for sure. And word to founders, make sure that it's a bridge to somewhere, not a pier, not just sticking out to keep you from falling into the abyss a little bit longer, but make sure that there's something on the other side. And we love bridge rounds because usually that means there's enough traction by any...
by any definition of VC to get a Series A going. And it really becomes a much more of a financial analysis for VC at that point versus do they love the idea and want to take a flyer. Those days are long since over.
Guy Reams (59:51.663)
Well, thank you very much for being on the show today. I really appreciate it. It's been a great conversation.
Benton Moore (59:57.688)
Thanks a million, Guy. Trevor, thanks as always. Cheers.
Trevor (59:58.624)
Yeah, thanks for having us, guy. Great. Yep, thanks, Minton. See you guys.